The present invention relates to a panel dolly and especially to a panel or door dolly and door mounting tool having swinging panel clamps for rapidly attaching and removing a panel to and from the dolly.
Door support devices have been in use for years for assisting individuals in the installation of doors within door jambs and these devices are frequently in the form of a door dolly which allows the door to be attached thereto and wheeled into position for mounting the door. Carpenters typically have to move doors into position in new construction and have to fit and hang the doors to door openings in buildings. This sometimes requires hanging a door in an existing jamb when only the door needs replacing and at other times requires the installation of a new door jamb and door. The door has to be moved into position and then mounted to the door jamb and this is accomplished by positioning the door in the door opening and then using small wooden door shims and pry bars to raise and position the door to a position for mounting the door. The door must then be mounted to the jamb, again using door shims and pry bars to position the door in the exact position for attaching the hinges.
To accomplish these results, a variety of door dollys and door mounting jigs have been provided in the past. These may be seen in some of the following U.S. patents.
In the Morse U.S. Pat. No. 3,861,662 a combined door carrier and hanging device supports a door panel vertically with the hinged edge of the door in a horizontal position to permit a person to prepare the door for hanging. This door carrier has a frame with a pair of support members having adjustable clamp members mounted on each end of the frame. The carrier has a pair of wheels on one end and a pair of support legs on the other end. Another door mounting apparatus may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,034 to Walker et al. which is a door mounting tool for mounting a door to a door jamb and includes a wheeled frame for supporting the door and rolling the door into position adjacent a door jamb.
In the Deutsch et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,806, a door hanging aid uses a collapsible frame for supporting a door prior to the door being mounted on hinges and frames. In the Carter U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,244, a pivotable dolly for holding and transporting a door holds a rectangular door by one edge to permit the transportation, preparation and final attachment of the door to the jamb. The dolly includes clamps fixed to an elongated frame member to releasably hold the door by its edge and has a wheeled end for moving the door on the door dolly. The Hallman et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,844 has a door transporting and support system having a wheeled frame for supporting a door. The Willis U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,141 is a door carrier having a wheeled frame in the nature of a hand cart for carrying a door standing on its edge. The Wilson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,132 is a pivotable hand truck for supporting and installing a door and has a pair of wheels secured to an L-shaped frame and allows the door to be pivoted between horizontal and vertical positions and lifted vertically to adjust to a selected height above a floor surface.
Other U.S. patents include the Augustine U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,192 for a door brace for facilitating hanging and the Bross U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,090 for a door dolly apparatus and the Curran U.S. Pat. No. 6,338,758 for a multiple object paint rack system for doors and shutters. The Coleman U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,671 is for a wheeled door hanger device and the Hedlund U.S. Pat. No. 2,503,388 is for a door hanger and trolley.
The present invention is for a panel dolly for transporting and hanging a door or transporting a panel which has a wheeled frame with an elongated center member telescopably adjustable for different size panels. The panel clamping mechanism has swinging clamps for rapidly clamping and unclamping a door or panel to the dolly and avoiding the time consuming practice of hand threading a clamp to a door when attaching or removing a door from a dolly.